All our free courses
free course icon
level 2: intermediate icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Living psychology: animal minds
Does your pet cat or dog experience emotions the same way you do? Can non-human animals solve complex problems? To what extent do other species have minds that are like human minds? This free course, Living psychology: animal minds, explores these, and other, issues in the psychology of animal minds. Studying animal minds is of great importance ...
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Money & Business
Commercial awareness
Boost your commercial awareness with this free short course. Explore your organisation’s purpose, understand your role within it, and learn how different perspectives can enhance the value you create.
free course icon
level 3: advanced icon
History & The Arts
The poetry of Sorley MacLean
Sorley MacLean (1911-1996) is regarded as one of the greatest Scottish poets of the twentieth century. This free course, The poetry of Sorley MacLean, will introduce you to his poetry and give you an insight into the cultural, historical and political contexts that inform his work. MacLean wrote in Gaelic and the importance of the language to ...
free course icon
level 2: intermediate icon
History & The Arts
Recording music and sound
This free course, Recording music and sound, provides an historical introduction to music and sound recording in the creative industries and offers some guidance about making your own recordings. Many of the processes that have been developed and the issues that have been raised in the first 150 years of recording are still relevant today, and a...
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Languages
Beginners’ French: A trip to Avignon
This course helps you to acquire the basic language to find your way around a French town. You will learn how to understand and give directions, ask about accommodation, book a hotel room at the tourist information office and get information about what to see and do in the local area. You will visit some museums in Avignon and buy a film for ...
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Languages
Why study languages?
Learning languages and finding out about other countries can be fun, as well as useful, and this course is an introduction to the differences in culture and language about which we all need to be aware. There are 10 independent sections: any selection of them can be studied in any order. Some are about why knowledge of other languages and ...
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
The impact of technology on children's physical activity
This free course, The impact of technology on children's physical activity, explores the impact of technology on children’s physical activity levels. It examines the different types of technology that children have access to and the ways in which they engage with it. As part of this discussion this course looks at information from a range of ...
free course icon
level 2: intermediate icon
Languages
Intermediate French: 14 July
This course is taken from Ouverture, a language module that concentrates on French as a tool for communication, but it also provides some insights into French society and culture through authentic printed, audio and video materials. It will be of interest to all those who want to improve their language skills in order to communicate more easily ...
free course icon
level 3: advanced icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Software and the law
In this free course, Software and the law, you'll look at the laws relevant to software and its use, taking a global perspective. A major part of this course is devoted to intellectual-property law, the issue of who owns software and digital content and how that ownership can be protected using instruments like copyright and patents. We also...
free course icon
level 3: advanced icon
Society, Politics & Law
Introduction to critical criminology
This free course, Introduction to critical criminology, provides a brief introduction to critical criminological thinking. It defines the ways in which critical criminologists take a 'critical stance' on the fundamental concepts, practices and institutions associated with crime and criminal justice systems.
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Nature & Environment
Life in the Palaeozoic
Fossils are a glimpse into the distant past and fascinate young and old alike. This free course, Life in the Palaeozoic, will introduce you to the explosion of evolution that took place during the Palaeozoic era. You will look at the many different types of creatures that existed at that time and how they managed to evolve to exist on land.
free course icon
level 2: intermediate icon
Nature & Environment
Animals at the extremes: the desert environment
Animal life has adapted to survive in the most unlikely and inhospitable habitats. This free course, Animals at the extremes: the desert environment, looks at the surprisingly diverse desert climates throughout the world and mammals, birds, lizards and amphibians that survive there. It splits these animals into three groups according to their ...
free course icon
level 2: intermediate icon
History & The Arts
Exploring Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts
This free course introduces Virginia Woolf’s last novel, Between the Acts (1941), with the aim of understanding how she writes about time, memory, and ideas about identity. It also considers why Woolf’s fiction is often considered difficult. Selected extracts from her essays on writing help to clarify some of these perceived difficulties, ...
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Languages
Exploring languages and cultures
Explore the multiple relationships between languages and cultures. In this free course you will learn about the benefits and challenges of meeting people from different cultures and the ways in which language and human communities shape each other. You will look at the role of intercultural competence at the workplace, reflect on the use of ...
free course icon
level 3: advanced icon
Education & Development
Exploring equality and equity in education
This free course, Exploring equality and equity in education, considers the complexity of social justice as applied to education and reflects on the different purposes of, and value ascribed to, education in different countries and cultures. It discusses different conceptions of 'justice' and the distinction between equity and equality.
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Society, Politics & Law
Reading visual images
What does a picture or an image tell you? This free course, Reading visual images, is an introduction to analysing and interpreting photographs as social data. Who controls what the image is saying? You will look at how photographs provide visual evidence and how they can illustrate and support our ideas about society.
free course icon
level 2: intermediate icon
Society, Politics & Law
Equity – law and idea
This free course, Equity – law and idea, gives you the opportunity to broaden your skills in and knowledge and understanding of legal principles. Beyond the confines of the Common Law of England and Wales Equity is rarely discussed or understood, but has long played a vital role in the social, economic, cultural and political life of the nation....
free course icon
level 3: advanced icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Approaches to software development
This free course, Approaches to software development, presents an engineering approach to the development of software systems – a software engineering approach. The course pays particular attention to issues of software quality, in terms of both product (what is built) and process (how we build it).